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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Bottle Rocket

Introduction:

I was
recently lucky enough to be sent a complementary sample for Bottle Rocket to try out. I'm always really excited to build new partnerships and help others grow in the sport just as I want to do. They have come up with a very unique between-the-aero bars water
bottle cage. I have always been a fan of a bottle right between the aero bars.
It is fast and efficient, and the bottle being right under your nose reminds
you to drink. The only problem with a lot of these systems is bottles ejecting
out the front. An unexpected bump in the road arrives and off it shoots. Now
you are left with no way to hydrate for the rest of your bike ride.

Bottle
Rocket is the first system I know of that actually holds the bottle on the
front and the back. It is also interesting because there is nothing in the
middle. Such a small amount of material makes the cage lighter than most. As
you can see, the bottle sits right on top of the aero bars and is pretty sleek.

Setup:

I’m the kind of guy who isn’t a fan
of reading directions even though they make everything much easier. The nice
thing about this system is that it was really easy to set up so I was actually
able to figure it out right away. A cone is attached to the aero bars with zip
ties to hold the back of the bottle. Then a rubber ring is attached towards the
front of the aero bars with a velcro strap on either side. These straps can
easily be moved if you have drastically different sized water bottles.

Using the Cage:

I was skeptical at first because I
thought it was going to be difficult to get in and out while riding. To put the
bottle in, you simply put the tip of the bottle through the ring, push it
forward, and slide the back into the cone. After I did it a few times it was
just as easy as any other cage. It was actually really fast as well since it
was so close and there was still no need to come out of the aero position.

Conclusion:

I was very pleased with this bottle
cage. It is definitely the best front-mounted cage I have used. Bottle Rocket’s
aero data also shows that using their cage is actually more aero than having no
bottle at all. There is also no possible way that the bottle could fly out any
direction which solves the original problem. So, it’s easy, it’s light, and it’s
aero. Bottom line—fast. The only improvement they could make is to build in a
way to mount a computer. I think it would be pretty easy for them to extend
something off the back and tuck it in right behind the cone and completely hide
it from the wind. Other than that this cage is one I would recommend to anybody
on a TT/Triathlon bike. You'll definitely see me out there killing it with this on my ride. For more information about Bottle Rocket check out
their website here: http://bottlerocket.info/